Boris steals phone from journalist to avoid question about NHS cuts.
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But, both of them…
The antisemitism is bipartisan. As Tracy-Ann Oberman said at the big (nonpartisan) London antisemitism rally last weekend, the British Jewish community is caught in a “pincer movement between the far right and hard left.”
Whataboutism aside, we expect it of the Tories. That doesn’t make them better, but fixing this in Labour will be an essential part of what looks like the difficult task of getting them electable again.
The articles about both de Pfeffel and Farage should put things into perspective for British voters concerned about this. Corbyn has – characteristically – dithered and bungled the handling of the anti-Semites within his own party, to be sure, handing the party’s enemies free ammunition and alienating those who might otherwise have voted for them.
However, anyone who thinks that a post-Brexit UK where right-wing populists and/or old-fashioned Anglican toffs are in charge is going to be a friendlier (or equally friendly) place for Jews than it would be under Labour (and, one hopes, still in the EU) is fooling himself.
The goal remains the same for Thursday: everyone needs to hold their noses and vote for the non-Tory left-leaning candidate that has the best chance of winning the constituency. Then, if Labour gets some sort of government and pushes through a second referendum, demand new leadership. But first things first.
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The problem for me is that I can’t think of anyone in the party. They all are either Momentum, with it’s tankie leanings (remember Stalin’s treatment of Jewish people), or Third Way, with it’s attitude of “form an orderly queue over the edge of the cliffs of neoliberalism and climate chaos”.
(Not all of Momentum is tankie, but it feels like the leadership mostly is)
Labour are still better than the alternative and should be voted for wherever they can win, but it still isn’t good enough. No wonder the situation is making me suicidally depressed.
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And of Stalin’s own Jewish comrades in the party (especially the Old Bolsheviks). It seems that some of the members of Momentum with Jewish heritage forgot to study that bit, as they either defend their anti-Semitic comrades (whether by foot-dragging, excuse-making, or outright support) or sometimes indulge in calumnies themselves in a misguided effort to demonstrate their loyalty. With tankies in charge, that never ends well.
Corbyn himself is prone toward dithering and delaying in order to show solidarity with his anti-Semitic comrades. I truly wish Labour had a better leader, especially in this moment of crisis, but like you I can’t see anyone in the party and, with two days to go to the election, it’s too late anyhow.
For now, I can only hope that the Tories lose power, that a second referendum is pushed through by Labour and/or the Lib Dems and then won by Remain, after to which everyone has breathing room to consider a truly progressive way forward for Labour that doesn’t involve anti-Semitism or other bigotry.
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Gee, ya think?
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You get the bastards you deserve.
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I’ll give it a few more hours, but it looks like the answer to the headline question of this topic is “well and truly”.
A lot of innocent people are going to be hurt like by this outcome (I know you’re aware of this). So, as far as “deserve” goes for them…
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It’s almost like a race to the bottom between the US and UK for who can do the best job destroying our respective nations.
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It’s going to be a very depressing, long night so when we have more years of austerity doubleplus and our NHS being dismantled and handed to giant pharma then those who did vote for these fuckers get what they deserve.
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There I agree. Anyone who voted for the Tories or the Brexit Party who isn’t already a millionaire will get exactly what they deserve. I’ll save my tears for the other victims of the depredations to come.
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I’m fond of Saddiq Khan.
Leadership is more than policy. I like the current party’s platform (for the most part), but JC has proved himself a shitty leader. In any event, Labour contains (or contained) people from Momentum to the Blairites, and you can’t really succeed as a mainstream party if you only listen to one extreme or the other, especially when there’s a whole other chunk of a country which is politically to the right of Blair.
Normally, an established western democracy can experiment with jackass leadership for a while and then more-or-less recover (as the US did with Reagon and hopefully will do with Trump). In this case, because of Brexit, I don’t see an easy recovery for Britain’s experiment with BoJo the clown.
Right now the only bit of a silver lining is that SNP looks to gain over 50 seats, which means that Ruth Davidson will have to jump naked into Loch Ness
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So…new question now that we’re bound to see some sort of Brexit. Suppose a bright young person or a person vulnerable to right-wing violence decides “screw this small-minded, mean-spirited Little England noise – I’m blowing this pop stand” and has the means to do so. Since they’re still citizens of the EU, could they go off to the Continent pre-Brexit, establish residency in France or Spain or wherever, with the goal of a passport from their new country? [ETA: looks like there’s about a year to get that plan in order]
I suppose there’s Scotland as an option. Since it looks like the SNP basically won there, I expect that they’ll now have a second independence referendum so that they can escape the clutches of the Tories once and for all and have a chance at re-joining the EU in five years or so.
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Apart from the lack of language skills of most Brits and the competition from more cosmopolitan Europeans, the theory is sound…
Scotland may be more of a realistic option over all. No exchange rate or residency issues and educational and vocational qualifications are similar if not the same, and still access to what remains of the NHS. Ireland, Eire and N.I., are going to be a mess of tax breaks and customs checks in the near future and probably best as a tourist destination rather than somewhere to run to.
Brexit fucked it for the entire UK. Entirely setting fire to half a dozen random cities would have caused less damage.
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And make no mistake, if the exit polls are correct this is what a lot of LGBTQ+ people, Jews, and Muslims (at least the ones who aren’t wealthy) now need to consider seriously. Little England under the Tories will be a very bad place for them. This is what it’s come to.
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Was unsure where to post this, but it seemed to be in keeping with some of the points you were making about antisemitism in Labor. Espescially re: gaslighting and always responding that it’s simply being weaponized. I always read people making the weaponization argument and find myself thinking “it can be both.” Really problems can be cynically weaponized by the opposition as easily as fake.
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Dystopian sci-fi futures always looked so much more fun 20 odd years back…
Now it seems nearly all of us are fucked, because Big Money has won once again.
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